Global stocks mostly climb despite rising trade tensions

New York: World stock markets mostly climbed Friday despite rising trade tensions, with petroleum-linked shares gaining after OPEC agreed to only a modest production increase.

The Dow snapped an eight-session losing streak, with oil producers Exxon Mobil and Chevron both rising more than two percent on higher oil prices.

Ministers with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to ramp up oil production by around a million barrels a day from July.

However, some ministers acknowledged that the actual amount of additional produced will be lower than that amount. US oil prices rose nearly five percent following the agreement, with analysts saying the output increase would be smaller than expected.

The rally in oil prices also gave a lift to French giant Total and London-listed Royal Dutch Shell.

Bourses in Paris and London both rose more than one percent, while Frankfurt rose a more modest 0.5 percent.

The gains came as the European Union slapped revenge tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and motorcycles in its opening salvo in a trade war with President Donald Trump.

Customs agents across Europe’s colossal market of 500 million people will now impose the duty, hiking prices on US-made products in supermarkets and across factory floors.

Trump wasted little time in responding, threatening on Twitter to impose 20 percent tariffs on European-made cars exported to the US, pressuring European automakers including Italy’s Fiat Chrysler and Germany’s Daimler.

“The underlying tensions between the US and China continue to escalate, and while neither wants a trade war, the US won’t accept the status quo, and China won’t change its industrial policy,” Rabobank senior strategist Michael Every told AFP.

Many analysts have expressed skepticism that a trade war is inevitable. Still, anxiety is rising.

“The hope is that the Trump administration’s tough approach towards its trading partners is a negotiating tactic and the growth-killing implications of an all-out trade war will be avoided,” said Bob Schwartz, senior economist at Oxford Economics. “The latest salvo by Trump on Friday, threatening to impose a 20 percent tariff on European auto imports, is clearly not encouraging.”